Jones, a seventh-round pick who played in a 3-4 system at Colorado, fared extremely well in the Packers' 17-7 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. Making his first career start in place of the injured Aaron Kampman (concussion), Jones gave the Packers just about everything they were looking for from the position.

He had seven tackles, including one for loss, and did a reasonably good job in coverage.

"I thought he played very well for a young man playing in his first game, against that opponent, and the number of defensive calls that were called in the game, particularly the multiple pressure schemes and everything," McCarthy said Monday.

McCarthy said Kampman will be cleared for practice this week, which means either Jones goes to the bench or defensive coordinator Dom Capers finds a way to get him involved in the defense. The big question is whether it would come at the expense of Kampman's playing time.

McCarthy said Kampman will return to his starting position, but he didn't rule out Jones contributing in one fashion or another.

"I think he's warranted an opportunity to play," McCarthy said. "I was very pleased with his performance, his ability to get off blocks, some of the plays he made."

Capers said one of the most encouraging things about Jones' performance was that he didn't have to alter his game plan at all. Jones was able to handle all the assignments he was given and even played a big role in Charles Woodson's sack and strip of quarterback Tony Romo by dropping into coverage and taking away Romo's first option.

"You never know how a guy's going to respond," Capers said. "We were going against one of the top two or three offenses in the league. Their tight ends are good blockers, and I thought Brad responded well."

Foot fault

For the second time in the past month, McCarthy put punter Jeremy Kapinos on notice about his below-average kicking.

"Jeremy needs to punt better; he knows that," McCarthy said. "He's a young man that does a very good job throughout the week and just needs to be more consistent on game day."

Kapinos punted seven times against the Cowboys for a 43.7 average and 35.0 net.

He currently ranks 17th in the NFL with a 44.2 average, and 31st in net (33.0). He also is tied for 28th with 10 punts inside the 20.

Special teams coach Shawn Slocum said Kapinos' problems are due to the long stride he takes on his approach.

"If he keeps his steps short, he can lift the football," Slocum said. "He's done that in practice the last two weeks. He's been very good with it. But this is something we started working on back in March. He's got to take that into the ball game."

The Packers don't appear to be considering a change this week.

Many happy returns

Tight end Jermichael Finley has finally gotten clearance to return to the practice field and will take part when workouts begin Wednesday.

Finley has been out since injuring his knee against Cleveland on Oct. 25. He had been pushing the medical staff to clear him the past two weeks, but team physician Patrick McKenzie didn't want to put Finley on the field prematurely.

Also expected back this week is linebacker Brandon Chillar. He was active Sunday and ready to play with a padded club around his broken hand, but only in an emergency because the Packers only had six linebackers available.

Chillar will return to practice full time this week and compete with A.J. Hawk for playing time in various packages.

Prior to his injury, Chillar was a main figure in the team's pass defense.

"We'll look at it as a coaching staff and see what’s going to give us the best options for next week," linebackers coach Winston Moss said. "It’s all going to be a game-plan situation that we’ll try and obviously keep those guys on the field as much as possible in some type of way."

The right man for the job

Rookie T.J. Lang had a false start penalty and allowed a pressure early in the game, but according to McCarthy, held up well in his first start at right tackle.

Lang filled in for veteran Mark Tauscher, who injured his knee against Tampa Bay and did not play Sunday.

"He graded out very well, and physically he seemed to come out of the game OK," McCarthy said. "I think he’s a little more comfortable on the right side than the left side, which I think everybody can understand that. That’s more of a position he feels most comfortable at."

Challenge this

The Packers were definitely on the right side of the officiating Sunday.

Not only did the officials blow a fumble-recovery call that would have given the ball to Dallas after Woodson stripped Romo, they did not issue a penalty when McCarthy threw his red challenge flag for a third time.

The only time a coach gets three challenges is if he's right on the first two. McCarthy had missed one earlier in the game.

According to Rule 15, Section 9 of the NFL rules book, throwing the red flag with no timeouts or when all of the available challenges have been used up is a 15-yard penalty. McCarthy wanted to challenge a catch Cowboys receiver Patrick Crayton made in the fourth quarter.

If the penalty had been assessed, it would have given the Cowboys a first down on the Packers' 14. The drive ended on the 1-yard line when Woodson intercepted Romo.

Injury report

Fullback John Kuhn suffered the only serious injury in the game. He broke his hand.

McCarthy was unsure whether he'd be able to play this week.

Also, defensive end Cullen Jenkins had swelling in his ankle, linebacker Desmond Bishop had an ankle sprain and receiver Greg Jennings had a knee bruise.

Greg A. Bedard of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.